Mike Darnell


Michael H. "Mike" Darnell is an American television executive who is currently the president of Unscripted & Alternative Television at Warner Bros. He spent nearly 19 years at the FOX network as president of Alternative Entertainment, overseeing the network's reality television division during the genre's rise. Tvbythenumbers' Masked Scheduler claims that Darnell is "the king of reality TV and one of the more interesting, offbeat characters ever to occupy an executive suite."

Early life and career

Mike Darnell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Eileen and Doyle E. Darnell. His father was a policeman, and Darnell was raised and attended public school in Philly's Northeast section. When he was 10, a talent manager saw him singing at a Police Athletic League event and encouraged him to do commercials. When he was 12, his family moved to California, where he eventually appeared in, or voiced-over, some sixty commercials. He also appeared in TV episodes such as Sanford and Son, Welcome Back, Kotter and Kojak. Later he worked as a bank teller to help pay his way through Cal State-Northridge. He also played piano at a night spot. Soon after graduating, in 1994, he had an internship at Entertainment Tonight, which he says he "hated", before he started working at Fox's West Coast flagship station KTTV, within their news department.
Darnell is married to Carolyn Oberman, a public relations executive who works for the Emmy Awards, and they have a daughter.

Fox Broadcasting Company

During his tenure at FOX, Darnell was responsible for hundreds of series and specials, which included: American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef, So You Think You Can Dance, The X Factor, Kitchen Nightmares, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Temptation Island, The Simple Life, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé, Joe Millionaire, and the launch of the animated series Futurama and Family Guy.
With more than 30 million viewers at its peak, American Idol helped FOX rise from the last place network to eight consecutive seasons as the number one network. Darnell oversaw American Idol from its creation through Season Twelve. Darnell told Variety that his proudest achievements during his time at FOX was American Idol and the success he had with Gordon Ramsay, as well as the season finale of Joe Millionaire, which became the "highest-rated entertainment telecast in the history of Fox."
As mentioned above, Darnell started in KTTV's news department before becoming executive producer of specials for the Fox Television Station Group, before moving to the network to become Director of Specials. Darnell launched more than sixty specials a year on FOX, including: When Animals Attack!, World’s Scariest Police Chases, , and Man vs Beast. One of his earliest specials came when a producer brought Darnell some old black-and-white footage that appeared to be an alien being dissected. The special was called and drew an audience of nearly 12 million viewers in a single airing.

Warner Bros Television

Within his Unscripted & Alternative division at Warner Bros., Mike Darnell is responsible for overseeing three WB companies: Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, Telepictures Productions, and Shed Media. Darnell and his team currently oversee 35 series across 20 different networks including primetime series such as Little Big Shots, Ellen’s Game of Games, The Voice, The Bachelor franchise, Love Connection, as well as TMZ, The Real, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, among others. In 2017, Deadline reported that since Darnell joined Warner Bros, its primetime unscripted portfolio has grown from three series to 12—currently more than any other producer or studio in America.
Darnell created and is an executive producer of talent competition series The World's Best on CBS hosted by James Corden. The series is produced by Darnell and his Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television division in association with Mark Burnett and MGM Television and Ben Winston and Fulwell 73.
Darnell also created and serves as an executive producer on the competition series Mental Samurai on Fox hosted by Rob Lowe. The series is produced by Darnell and his Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television division in association with Arthur Smith and A. Smith & Co. Productions and Jeff Apploff and Apploff Entertainment.